Sign Up for Swamplot Emails:

Montrose’s New Long Dog

Regretting what he calls “too much shitty visual culture” in Montrose, artist Cody Ledvina has spent the past few months approaching businesses with ideas for murals as a way of changing that culture, wall by wall. (You might remember Ledvina’s redone Mary’s mural before the leather bar was closed to make way for Blacksmith.) The most recent mural is this elongated weiner dog stretching out on the side of EJ’s Bar at 2517 Ralph St. The photo’s taken from Kueter St. beside Buffalo Exchange and that fenced-in vacant lot on Westheimer near Dunlavy. Also shown here is part of a mural — that’s askyline silhouette, there — on the side of Urban Leasing & Realty’s building at 1901 Vermont St.

I love the Vermont Street mural! Not only has that building gone through some wonderful renovations recently, but now I break out in a smile every time I see the cat sitting on the edge of the pool looking towards downtown.

I have zero respect for most Houston area artists as well. Most of the “art” that I see at galleries is frankly, garbage, such as facial portraits with genitalia painted on them. Sorry, but the people buying these orange stucco Mcmansions are the same idiots plunking down $2,000-3,000 for this junk.

Some people just don’t like art, which is fine but for some reason art is unique in that the naysayers always feel entitled to make value judgements on the entirety of art. I guess visual art is just an easy target. As to the penis art, nobody hears a shitty band at one of the 100 Little Woodrows in town and declares all of Houston music dead.

I disagree, Harold. I love facial portraits with genitalia painted on them, and I’m really pleased that this genre of art has become associated with Houston. I was just remarking on this the other day to a fellow malcontent at an exhibit at the Watercolor Art Society of Houston over on Alabama. The theme of the show? Facial portraits with genitalia painted on them, of course.

Let me get this straight – we are to minimize and shout down the work of “malcontents with a paint bucket,” but a malcontent with a keyboard is a-okay? Cody Ledvina loves this neighborhood and is exactly the kind of person who makes Montrose the neighborhood it is. Bravo, Cody.

This is one of the best things that has recently happened to Montrose. Keep up the excellent work, Mr. Ledvina! Thank you for bringing some genuine human charm to this new wave of quickly drowsying urban “development”.

If you really think the cat on the lake or whatever it is looks good then your sense of aestetic is obviously out of whack. That “mural” is out of place and poorly done. I actully like some of the fun graffiti
art on buildings around Montrose…. but not
that horrible mess. It looks like an art project from a kindergarten class. Im sure some of the paragons of “art appreciation” would howl if the next store neighbor painted their house hot pink with polka dots all over it……etc.

I would not describe commonsense as a troll. I think he’s completely sincere, and in fact his views represent a very large portion of the local population.

Public art can be really cool or completely boring. Try to please everybody and you end up please nobody or, maybe, the least sophisticated among us. I do not claim any superiority on the subject of art, believe me. I am not nearly sophisticated enough to understand some of what passes for modern art these days. But I’m certainly not gonna knock it. Especially not a giant weiner dog.

FYI for the lazy. @Tom – the cat is a reference to “Balls” the cat from the infamous Mary’s mural which, @Swamplot was repainted years after the bar itself had closed and done with permission from Heugel et al after they had purchased it. It’s also arguably (for better or worse) the most “Montrose” piece of public art we’ve ever had so the reference is apt, especially considering Ledvina’s work under the auspices of the Montrose Improvement Bureau.

Somebody doesn’t like “art”. That’s nothing. Recently somebody of the right-wing persuasion told that me that he doesn’t like music. Not just some types of music but every type of music. I didn’t even know how to respond to that because it never occurred to me that somebody with no apparent psychological issues could feel that way.

I live a few houses down on Vermont and watched all the renovations the owners were doing to the inside of the building. I see this mural daily and I have to say I’m not a fan. And I love cats and color. But something so much better could’ve been done. Maybe one day it’ll be painted over…

As the owner of the building of 1901 Vermont I appreciate all the feedback on the brick wall facing Dunlavy. Cody came to me with an idea to make that graffitied wall interesting and colorful and I think that’s what he did. My vision is that the wall will be a canvas for the Montrose community. If you think it looks bad, feel free to send some mock-ups of what it should be. I’m sure Swamplot would be happy to post them.